Southern Baptists face controversy over Calvinism

I am very familiar with the verses that were deemed to proclaim predestination, but my view is that those words were spoken to a very elect group of people at a very select time...prior to the tribulation that would result in the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 a.d. I believe that we read those scriptures today as if they were spoken directly to the people of today, when in fact they were not. If you found some old love letters of mine today that are dated back in the late 70's that were addressed to X, Y, & Z, would you determine that those letters were written to you? I think not. The Jews were a predestined people that God used to bring salvation to the world. The apostles were speaking to the Jews about that. When Jesus died He didn't just die for Jews, but for all mankind, that the whole world may come to Him. There is neither Greek, nor Jew, nor Gentile, but before the crucifixion there was only the Jew that was God's covenant people. Today all the Gentiles have access to salvation that was provided through the very peculiar people that were the Jews. It was in the person of Christ. There is so much misunderstanding of the Bible today because people read it today as if it was a direct quote to them. The Bible is literature and history. It was written for the Jew first. The Old Testament was a revelation of a person to come that would be the propitiation for our sins. It was a shadow of things to come. Think about Abraham offering his son, Elijah, to God as a blood sacrifice. We know that an Angel stopped him, but he was willing because he was faithful. God would one day give His Son on the alter of the crucifix for all mankind. Jesus died once for all, not once for some. John Calvin may have been a "good man", but many a good man misreads as well as reads things into the scriptures. Our seminaries are full of traditions of men today that have resulted in hatred amongst the denominations, as well as the nations. These are false teachings that someone insisted was what the scriptures were saying, when if fact the interpreter twisted the truth to fill in a "gap" that he either had a preconceived idea about, or he was oblivious to the facts and political and economics of what was actually going on in the Jewish culture at that time. There were wars and rumors of wars back then, as well as earthquakes in diverse places. There was also pestilence and famine. Until we truly understand the truth of the Word we will continue being contentious and hateful to our fellow man across this world. If the scriptures say that to God there was neither Jew, not Greek, nor Gentile, why do we favor one group over another? If we would love our enemies as Jesus did this world would be a better place.

Ernie ClarkWaynesboroUser submission

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Southern Baptists face controversy over Calvinism

I am very familiar with the verses that were deemed to proclaim predestination, but my view is that those words were spoken to a very elect group of people at a very select time...prior to the